This looks great and I’m disappointed I’ll be missing it as I was in Stockholm in October and will be returning in January…

Mladen Stilinović, "Chinese Business," 2009 (detail). Collage.*

The seminar series at Iaspis discusses the image of work, the worker and the workplace in relation to diverse strategies within contemporary art. What roles are played by spatial organisation and activism? What concepts are the descriptions of artistic production and labour framed by? What ideologies are involved in the production of the artistic subject? Is the artist a role model for the contemporary “post-fordian” worker—flexible, creative, adaptable and cheap—a creative entrepreneur within an advanced service economy?

The first seminar treats contemporary and historical images of labour, and reflects on what type of “worker” the artist could be. On the Conditions of Production brings up the organisation of work within the art world. The third seminar discusses what role art can play—politically and socially—in relation to the public realm and spatiality. Artists, curators, activists, architects and researchers are contributing to the seminars.

The program is curated by Michele Masucci (artist), Annika Enqvist, Cecilia Widenheim and Jonatan Habib Engqvist (Iaspis). For further information http://www.iaspis.se

Seminar#1: Representations of Labour 20 November 10 am – 6 pm

What is the image of work? How and by whom has this image been produced? What are the means of production involved in artistic representations of workers, workers movements and the workplace? What are the theoretical and practical challenges in these representations? How is the role of the artist presented and what kind of “worker” is the artist? The seminar addresses what work is and has been through experiences of work and questions concerning migration, economy, class and technology.

Seminar#2: On the Conditions of Production 27 November 2 pm – 6 pm 28 November 10 am – 5 pm

A two day workshop hosted by a research group initiated by BAC (Baltic Art Center) in Visby. What are the general terms of production in society at large? How does economy, cultural politics and media relate to art? What does alienation imply in an increasingly socially oriented production process? What is the distribution of labour within the art world; what are the pros and cons of today’s system? Could one imagine an open working process, independent from predefined expectations? How can one organise a production-based residency today? The Open Call for Contributions aims at opening the ongoing research process and add to the discussion. In order to contribute and participate, please register by email to ontheconditionsofproduction@gmail.com

Two days revolving around the question of what it means to take action today. The conversations include intersectional perspectives on labour and the so-called creative industry. What are our possibilities to act within an artistic practice in social, spatial and political change? In what way are conflicts concerning work expressed in the workspace and in society? How is public space staged in the private? How can emancipatory political projects such as the feminist and queer movements separate themselves from an increasing commodification of political and social subjects? Is it possible to imagine a “movement” in the sense of a collective process of the transformation of reality today?

e-flux is pleased to launch Time/Bank: a platform initiated by Julieta Aranda & Anton Vidokle, where groups and individuals can pool and trade time and skills, bypassing money as a measure of value. Time/Bank is based on the premise that everyone in the field of culture has something to contribute and that it is possible to develop and sustain an alternative economy by connection existing needs with unacknowledged resources.

The origins of time-based currency can be traced both to the American anarchist Josiah Warren, who ran the Cincinnati Time Store from 1827 until 1830, and to the British industrialist and philanthropist Robert Owen, who founded the utopian “New Harmony” community which banned money. The first successful contemporary time bank was started in 1991 by Paul Glover in Ithaca, New York. Following his idea, people began to exchange time, which led to the creation of a time-based currency—the “Ithaca Hours,” which even local businesses began to accept, and which still flourishes. Time banking and service exchange have since developed into a full-fledged movement, usually centered around local communities.

Time/Bank at e-flux is modeled on existing time banks. Every Time/Bank transaction will allow individuals to request, offer, and pay for services in “Hour Notes.” When a task is performed, the credit hours earned may be saved and used at a later date, given to another person, or contributed towards developing larger communal projects. For example, if you happen to be in Beijing or Hamburg and need someone to help you shop for materials or translate a press release, you would be able to draw on resources from Time/Bank without exchanging any money.

Through Time/Bank, we hope to create an immaterial currency and a parallel micro-economy for the cultural community, one that is not geographically bound, and that will create a sense of worth for many of the exchanges that already take place within the art field—particularly those that do not produce commodities and often escape the structures that validate only certain forms of exchange as significant or profitable.

Since concern about work/life balance — rather the growing lack of it! — seems to have only grown since NTTL was presented at Peacock Visual Arts in 2008, I’ve decided to continue posting links and other information here as part of an ongoing commitment to this project.

Here are a few items that have come up recently, that I’d like to add…

The point of departure for the exhibition are contemporary changes of labour and production referred to by researches as „post-fordism” and connected with the development of the global information society and economy based on services and knowledge. This model of economy has extended the traditional borders of productivity by a complex and diverse set of social, intellectual, emotional and communicative processes, thus leading to engagement of workers` and consumers` subjectivity into cycles of production and reproduction of capital beyond fixed hierarchies and categories. Labour viewed from this perspective becomes biopolitics: management of life, creating its new forms. Productivity enters areas it used to be separated from: these of free time, entertainment, aesthetic experiences, social involvement, political action and housework. The requirements of constant efficiency, self-education and flexibility in adjusting to the constantly changing conditions also known today as self-improvement have caused us not to cease producing capital even after leaving our workplace.

The exhibition will debate three main intertwining themes: industrial labour, broadened and hybrid character of contemporary productivity, an artist‘s work and economy. The works focused on industry or its remnants will examine labour processes connected to the factory incorporated into immaterial flows of meaning, that determine in fact entire production cycles. The artists who position labour within the wide field of social and generic activities will particularly concentrate on an ambivalent, flexible and elusive dimension of work today, which often makes the worker function on the verge between self-realization and (self)exploitation. To what extent are the artistic practices – operating with and reprocessing after all images and meanings – reliant on the current transformations of capitalism? What kind of economies might be conceived by the artists, what is their potential to break away from the dominant modes of production?

In relation to the exhibition two new works are being prepared: Janek Simon’s project at Alaba International Market in Nigeria and “The History of the Bomb” by Roman Dziadkiewicz

The Workers Leaving the Workplace project further develops some questions raised by the exhibition Arbeiter verlassen die Arbeitsstätte at the Galerie für Zeitgenőssische Kunst in Leipzig in 2009.

The British government plans to prevent employers from retiring employees aged 65 who want to go on working. The daily The Times is delighted: “In earlier decades, when employment was dominated by manufacturing, workers were a drag on productivity as they became physically weaker. But in an economy characterised by the provision of services and the application of knowledge, older workers contribute far more. A default retirement age is neither a boon to them nor a way of improving the productivity of the workforce. On the contrary, it adds to one burden that an ageing society does impose, namely the expanding costs of pension provision. The proposal to abolish the DRA would ameliorate that problem by its symbolism. In indicating that older workers have an important contribution to the world of work, the Government may persuade many of them to stay within it. They will pay taxes as well as draw pensions.” (30/07/2010)

Canadians not using their vacation time
Talbot Boggs, The Canadian Press
(Special) – Canadians aren’t getting enough – vacations that is.

“A new Harris/Decima poll has found that although Canadian workers have an average of 19.68 days a year off, almost one quarter don’t use all their vacation time and give back an average of 2.17 days.

The most common reasons Canadians give for not using their full vacation time include not scheduling their vacation well enough in advance, they are too busy to get away or their significant others are not able to get away from their jobs.”

A short existential game about alienation and refusal of labour. Or, if you prefer, a playable music video. Created by Molleindustria, an entity that aims to reappropriate video games as a popular form of mass communication. Their objective is to investigate the persuasive potentials of the medium by subverting mainstream video gaming clichè (and possibly have fun in the process).

About 50 activists, initiatives, artists, theorists and opinion leaders from throughout the world have been invited to redefine the concepts of work and of being active under the motto “practice, method, scope“. The project began in January 2008 with a series of lectures and workshops. Since August, a number of interventions have taken place in Berlin public space. From 13 December, the participants will be showing what they understand by a collaborative and mutually supportive space to think, explore the scope of possibilities and act, in the exhibition space at NGBK.

The exhibition presents both the processes involved – workshops, campaigns, radio and film productions, artists’ actions and political interventions in urban space, as well as the results – films, posters, songs and other acoustic works, sculptures and documentary material.

/unvermittelt will be accompanied by a publication in German. ISBN: 978-3-938515-21-1.

At the evening opening at NGBK the Chor der Tätigen will be singing pop-songs on the topic of work together with “Judiths Krise”.

/unvermittelt is a project of the New Society for Visual Arts, its patron is Berlin’s Senator for Integration, Labour and Social Issues Dr. Knake-Werner.

Onthaasting: About Spare Time and Slower Worlds
Curated by Niels Van Tomme and Jan Van Woensel

Onthaasting is a mental diversion through the use of recreation as an “escape” from the perceived unpleasant aspects of daily life. It takes place on the outskirts of contemporary life: on mountaintops, in wide-open plains, in churches, in landscapes, in gardens … but most of all in the mind. The exhibition presents Belgian contemporary video artists within this conceptual framework.

Saturday November 22, 2008, 4:00 PMOnthaasting – The Exhibition as a State of Mind
Co-curator Niels Van Tomme will explain the concept of the exhibition. Through wide-ranging references, Van Tomme plans to merge the national with the personal, the theoretical with the anecdotal.

Saturday December 20, 2008 4:00 PMBelgians on Holiday
Co-curator Jan Van Woensel will explore the peculiar behavior of Belgians during their vacation at the beach. The lecture takes the 1996 surreal cult movie ‘Camping Cosmos’ as a key example.